Spielberg to lead Cannes award jury

The Cannes Film Festival says it has finally enlisted Steven Spielberg to serve as president of the award jury this year.

Gilles Jacob, the festival’s president, said he had been trying to get the award-winning director to head the jury for years, but the American movie mogul was always working. Finally, this year, Spielberg got in touch.

“When this year I was told, ’ET, phone home’, I understood and immediately replied, ’At last!’,” Mr Jacob said in a statement posted on the festival’s website.

The multiple Oscar winning film-maker, who was nominated but did not win the directing Academy Award for his biopic Lincoln this year, takes the reins from Italian Nanni Moretti.

The festival takes place in the glamorous French Mediterranean resort of Cannes from May 15 to 26.